The Immune System Booster Shake

The misfortune of my poor friend Buffy has inspired this shake. She wrote to me on Facebook this morning, horribly ill, and I just totally feel for her. Most of us don’t have time to be sick, especially not if you’re a parent! Cold season is looming on the horizon, so it would behoove you to save this recipe somewhere. It helped me countless times when I worked in a large gym, surrounded by people breathing hard while doing their cardio and carrying tons of germs. One by one, everyone got sick but me.

To get the most benefit, take a serving of BCAAs an hour before and two hours after making this shake. BCAAs were developed by the medical industry to prevent muscle wasting due to illnesses and injury to spare muscle mass. Many people lose their appetites while they are sick, so BCAAs are less offensive to sick people because they are in the form of a delicious drink. EFX Sports makes some really good BCAAs that taste great and mix very well… and leave ZERO lumps of powder floating around. When you do drink the shake in this recipe, take a Vitadrive and some GlutaZorb caps with it. “Animal studies have shown that inclusion of glutamine in the diet increases survival to a bacterial challenge. Indeed, the provision of glutamine to patients following bone marrow transplantation resulted in a lower level of infection and a shorter stay in hospital than for patients receiving glutamine-free parenteral nutrition.” 1Institute of Human Nutrition, University of Southampton, United Kingdom.

It’s common knowledge that berries and raw honey contains tons of antioxidants and phytochemicals that boost the immune system. We will just throw all of the best stuff available for the immune system in there, and then we will give it to a sick person and hope they can taste the wonderful, creamy, delicious sustenance that will help them get better! You can find raw honey, acai products, dried goji berries, chia, etc., at any decent health food store. I could list the benefits of all of the ingredients in this shake and how they work, but we’d literally be here all day!

Ingredients:

1 scoop EFX Sports Pure Whey vanilla

1 packet of stevia

1 tbsp. of Super Enriched Honey with bee pollen, propolis, and royal jelly (or just plain raw honey, but that doesn’t have as much good stuff) or even Manuka honey but it’s pretty expensive.

¼ cup frozen blueberries

¼ cup frozen blackberries

1 pack of unsweetened pure acai berry puree thawed

1 tbsp. chia seeds

1 tsp dried goji berries, or 1/8 cup goji juice

¼ cup plain nonfat yogurt with live cultures

1/8 cup pomegranate arils (1/2 fruit)

4-6 ice cubes

½ cup water

Directions: Put all of the ingredients into the blender, except for the chia seeds and goji berries (if you are using dried goji berries). If you are using the juice, then go ahead and put it in the blender. Blend everything, and top it off with some chia seeds and goji berries for looks! You don’t have to do that of course, I just think it’s fun. You gotta have fun, especially if you are sick!

Desiree Duggan

Desiree Duggan has been involved with the Fitness Industry for over nine years. She is a professional photographer, personal trainer and self-professed "Foodie" who absolutely hates the word 'diet'. Desiree loves turning naughty, fattening, 'slap-your-hand-cuz-it-don't-belong-in-the-cookie-jar' foods into more lifestyle friendly, nutritious and delicious recipes.